Pressure regulators are commonly relied on to reduce the pressure of a gas as it is delivered from a pressurized gas reservoir, such as a portable compressed air tank, to an application device, such as a paintball marker. Paintball markers may feature a gas pressure regulator directly connected to the mouth of a tank designed to store gasses at very high pressures, typically between 3000-4500 psi. Commonly referred to as “tank regulators,” these gas pressure regulators may reduce the pressure of the gas delivered from the tank down to, for example, 600-800 psi before the gas enters portions of the paintball marker for use in firing a projectile.
Paintball markers commonly include an air source adapter (ASA) non-rotatably affixed to the paintball marker. A tank pressure regulator, which is typically affixed to a paintball tank for regulating pressurized air flowing from the tank, must be tightly threaded into the ASA. The bodies of such regulators typically include one or more fixed radially protruding features, like a pressure gauge and/or fill nipple. In certain positions, such features may present undesirable or injurious obstructions for the paintball player, increase the risk of damage to the feature, or make it awkward for the player to view the feature (such as a pressure gauge). Historically, a player using a typical conventional tank regulator was unable to predict or adjust the location of such radially protruding features because the rotational orientation of the threading on both the regulator and the ASA were classically pre-defined and non-adjustable. The applicant has proposed previous solutions to this problem, as illustrated for example in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/687,031, which published as US20100175763. However, in order to rotatably adjust the adaptor sleeve in such prior solutions, one was required to remove the ASA from the adaptor sleeve and depressurize the regulator. Such requirements make it impractical to rotatably adjust the respective adaptor sleeve in the middle of a game.
What is needed is a gas pressure regulator for use in paintball marker applications wherein the threaded adaptor sleeve can quickly be selectively rotated to various rotational indices without requiring depressurization of the regulator or removal of the ASA from the regulator. Preferably, such rotational adjustability should be possible without the need for tools.